ourselves one to another. This way, I said to myself, there will be a better chance of finding them. At that instant, I was only thinking of my mother: I thought that it would be less painful to have...something...to take to the grave, instead of a never found notice.

Since Randall was on the sump-side, I asked him to carefully do a traverse above the rushing waters, because there might be a chance to find some type of chimney or Dome above the sump, he soon came back with a negative answer, and that became still a lesser chance to survive. This only made us feel more trapped, and made me go wondering, for the next thirty to thirty-five minutes into a sort of "review" of what my life had been up to this dreadful moment. Things such as the futility of dying in such a manner, in that God forsaken hidden depth, and that Randall and I would be a part of the list of people that died during Holy Easter week, and those many things I had programmed to do and wouldn't do, related to my business life, about my girlfriend, with whom I would never marry and build a pretty home , with many kids, and that I was going to fail everyone I was committed to, and so on and so on, till I would return to the fact that I had to fight to the very end to see that none of that happened, because I had a fighting spirit, and I was still alive.

At certain moments we had our lights out, but then, we would turn them on again, hoping that some sort of float would have a rescue rope tied to it's end, that would conduct us to freedom, because if we were given something to hold on to, I knew we could beat the raging and vicious waters: but then again, desperation would catch a hold of us, and then, the only thing we could go to was praying, over and over again.

I took it for granted that our fellow cavers out there somewhere had avoided being sucked and pulverized into the sump, but it made me angry to see they were doing nothing to help us, since only with help from outside could we get out. Their risk was minimum compared to what we were experiencing. And so, I never lost my faith in them, and I constantly shone my flashlight towards their direction. But I only saw the waters flowing..flowing...

It was right at one of those signaling moments that I excitedly noticed that the water level had gone down a bit, and that we had about two inches of air space in the crawl from time to time. I ventured that if we took off our helmets off (but keeping them) we would be able to stick our noses into the triangular shaped top of the ceiling, and thus make it out; so, I immediately shouted to Randall: "OK, cousin, this is it!...we can't wait any longer, since there might not be a second chance!...Take your helmet off, otherwise we won't fit, and follow me as close as possible!"

I jumped into the still menacing waters, and I remember sucking in quite some water through my nose, but I knew there wasn't any turning back, and then, all of a sudden, I felt that I was out, on the other side. Instinctively, I leaned back into the waters, stretching my arm and feeling everything, and then I had a hold of a pack-sack, and I pulled. I knew I was out alive, but Randall was still inside, so I reached in again, and I felt his hand, and experienced something unique, out of this world:to have my cousin's life in my hands, and that if I were to let him go, I would lose him forever!...It was then when I braced myself against the walls and ceiling that I pulled with all my strength, and it was absolutely incredible to see that seconds later, he was standing by me, alive and breathing, and even though we still had to get out of the flood pounding on us, I looked up and seeing the ceiling at least sixty feet above us, I just whispered, "Oh my God, thanks, now I know I am not going to die! Thank